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ESAblawg is an educational effort by Keith W. Rizzardi. Correspondence with this site does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Photos or links may be copyrighted (but used with permission, or as fair use). ESA blawg is published with a Creative Commons License.

florida gators... never threatened!

If you ain't a Gator, you should be! Alligators (and endangered crocs) are important indicator species atop their food chains, with sensitivity to pollution and pesticides akin to humans. See ESA blawg. Gator blood could be our pharmaceutical future, too. See ESA musing.

Follow the truth.

"This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
-- Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, December 27, 1820.

Thanks, Kevin.

KEVIN S. PETTITT helped found this blawg. A D.C.-based IT consultant specializing in Lotus Notes & Domino, he also maintains Lotus Guru blog.

Two similar dock cases, two very different outcomes

A tale of two docks. In a recent
Oregon case, Northwest Environmental
Defense Center v. National Marine Fisheries Service, No.
CV 08-939-MO, 2009 WL 2486039 (D. Or., Aug. 12, 2009), the U.S. Army Corps
and NOAA Fisheries won a complete victory, successfully defending a biological
opinion and its analysis of the impacts of the City of Oswego's dock demolition
and replacement project. In a fact-intensive case, the Court's deferential
analysis upheld the Federal agencies actions on seven different Endangered
Species Act claims. The very next day, the Federal Defendants did
not fare quite as well in Preserve Our Island v. U.S. Army Corps,
No. C08-1353RSM, 2009 WL 2511953 (W.D.Wash., Aug. 13, 2009), a case involving
issuance of a permit for the construction of a barge-loading facility on
the eastern shore of Maury Island, an is-land in Puget Sound located within
King County, Washington. Ultimately, the Court determined that the
informal consultation process resulted in the arbitrary and capricious
issuance of "no adverse effect" determinations "in the face
of scientific evidence in the record which suggests specific and serious
effects" on Chinook and Southern Resident Killer Whales. "The
Court finds that the Corps violated the plain meaning and intent of Section
7(a)(2) of the ESA by ignoring or disregarding evidence that would require
formal consultation with the Service." KEITHINKING: The first
case was a dispute over whether the agency "did it right," ultimately
turning on the degree of judicial deference. In comparison, the second
case was a dispute over whether an agency "did it at all," with
the final outcome reflecting the lack of support in the administrative
record.